When the ancient Polynesians invented surfing, they often used a paddle to help them navigate. Fast-forward a few millennia, and Stand-Up Paddleboarding, or SUP, finds itself trendy again. Part of its increasing popularity is that standing upright allows surfers to spot waves more easily and thus catch more of them, multiplying the fun factor. Paddling back to the wave becomes less of a strain as well. The ability to cruise along on flat inland water, surveying the sights, is another advantage. Finally, its a good core workout. If youre sold on the idea, schedule an intro SUP lesson, free with board and paddle rental, and you may find yourself riding the waves like a Polynesian king.More

Many of us remember coming home from our elementary schools with freshly glazed pinchpots, cups, or whatever else our young imaginations could conjure up. Saturday mornings at the Randall Museum can bring that memory back, or create a new one for the youngsters. Ceramics make great gifts — especially on Mothers' and Fathers' Day. Hop on board for the Randall's once-weekly class, and for $6 and two weeks to have your work fired and glazed, you'll have all the materials you need.More

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Hey, DJ! / Q&A
Ant-1 on Growing Up in the Local DJ Scene and Krazy Kids Radio

As a member of Krazy Kids Radio and the Ri$ky Bizne$$ Crew, local DJ Ant-1 is known for playing a broad variety of music, including '90s hip-hop and even the burgeoning trap music genre. Originally from Daly City, home to DJs like Shortkut and DJ Chicken Skratch, Ant-1 began his career in 1996 after watching local groups Supernatural Turntable Artists tear up the battle scene. He soon joined forces with friends $ir Tipp and DJ Teeko, and formed Fundamental Skratch Funk. Since then, he has been a fixture in the S.F. scene, broadcasting the weekly Krazy Kids Radio from Oakland's Youth Radio, and maintaining various residencies across the city. We recently spoke with Ant-1 about his weekly radio show, throwing parties on Mondays, and the latest trouble-making antics of the Ri$ky Bizness Crew. He plays Friday at SOM. and every Monday night at Beauty Bar.

You grew up in Daly City, which has been the home of a lot of great DJs. Why do you think that is?

Daly City has mad history when it comes to DJing, and mad history on different angles of DJing, too. Like the mobile crew called Spintronix has been doing their shit since 1986. The mobile crew I was in started in 1990. I think Shortkut was doing mobile like in '89, and then by like '95, he was already fucking with Invisibl Skratch Piklz, pioneering the scratch game. Swift Rock was Vestax World champion in like '98. Mike Relm battled A-Trak for the ITF world title in like '99. All those folks are from Daly City. Q-bert used to live in Daly City for a while, too, and we used to session at his house back in the day. Another part you can look at as well is that Daly City has mad Filipinos there. Most of these legendary DJs that were ripping shit in the scene were from Daly City, and the majority of them happened to be Filipino as well. I'm Filipino, and when I was a youngin', all these cats were me and my friends' heroes. These dudes were on some turntablist rockstar shit back in the '90s, and they influenced a very large number of kids from my side of the tracks. Daly City just has a deep DJ history.

Who was your favorite local DJ when you were learning how to DJ?

I honestly have too many favorites to say on this subject. I guess to break it down I would say D-Styles for the cuts, Swiftrock for the juggles, Shortkut for the steez, tricks, and juggles. Scotty Fox for the crowd controI. I can go on and on about this for days!

What's the Ri$ky Bizne$$ crew been up to lately?

There's been a lot, especially recently. In March, J Billion and Ruby Red and I came out with this mixtape called Killswitch. J.B. raps over Ruby Red's production and it kind of has a grimy and gritty feel to it. PFUNKTHEKING and $ir Tipp came out with an EP called Moonstruck. That project has a cool feel to it. It's on some chillwave hip-hop shit. Cee Rock has a beat on that EP, too. I made a couple of beats and remixes here and there. We're building a new studio right now and are looking forward to working on music at that space when we have it up and running. Be on the lookout, we got a lot in store for all y'all from the Ri$ky Bizne$$ crew.

You recently were Raekwon's DJ when he performed here a couple weeks ago. How was that experience?

Damn! That was a dope experience! I'm not going to front, when they told me I would be spinning for the God, I was hella honored and nervous on the inside, but you know, I'm a total professional. I had to act G as fuck and make it look like it was "ain't no thang" saying yes. But on the inside I was geeking! I mean I have been a spot DJ for a couple of notable acts in the past. I DJ'd for Curren$y one of the last times he was here, I'm a fan of his music, but it was no big deal in doing the job; it's all good spinning for rappers on the fly. But this was The Chef! Legend status. I couldn't help feeling like a kid meeting a legend in the game.

Your weekly Wild N' Krazy Kids Radio takes place at Youth Radio in Oakland. What's important in keeping radio shows alive and more specifically what being at Youth Radio represents?

I'm a DJ, and doing a radio show is a very good outlet for expressing your craft. Plus it's a podcast online, so we don't to keep have to keep it clean, no FCC bullshit; we can play whatever we want. On keeping it alive, we're just grateful that we have a beautiful facility in Youth Radio that wants to broadcast us. We're equally grateful that we have a really good audience that listens to us. We honestly do it for the listeners. One of the main reasons we have done it for so long is because our audience. As me and J Boo say it though, we always wanted to do our own Wayne's World, and Krazy Kids Radio is that. We are hella down for our Youth Radio/All Day Play brethren. So to the folks reading, why don't you vote for us as best website or podcast? Y'all should have a "best podcast" vote in the SF Weekly poll by the way. We want to add to our trophy case.

What's been one of the more memorable shows you've had?

I honestly love it when our listeners get to visit us and do a show with us. It has been amazing and very international. Like FTC brought Japan rapper and producer Zen La Rock and his homies Joy and Hammer; they bumped our show in Tokyo. Our homegirls from Melbourne, who supported our show in Australia, were our guests not so long ago. I really liked our last show we did. It's a 4/20 mix called "Hippy Con Trippy" and we had our homie James from Baltimore as our guest. Honestly all these folks are what makes our show go. It's a really dope feeling meeting the folks from around the world that fuck with our show, figuring out what mixes they love, and hearing their feedback in person. Again we do this show for all of them and all our listeners.

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Slideshows

Sub Pop recording artists 'clipping.' brought their brand of noise-driven experimental hip hop to the closing night of 2016's San Francisco Electronic Music Fest this past Sunday. The packed Brava Theater hosted an initially seated crowd that ended the night jumping and dancing against the front of the stage. The trio performed a set focused on their recently released Sci-Fi Horror concept album, 'Splendor & Misery', then delved into their dancier and more aggressive back catalogue, and recent single 'Wriggle'.
Opening performances included local experimental electronic duo 'Tujurikkuja' and computer music artist 'Madalyn Merkey.'"